
Synopsis[]
Hal and Lois has to go and visit Francis at his A.A. celebration, for going one full year of being sober. Malcolm and Reese have to babysit Dewey while Jamie is staying at the babysitter's house.
Plot[]
Hal and Lois are packing their bags to visit Francis to help him celebrate one year of sobriety. Although Jamie has been dropped off with a babysitter, Lois had accepted that there's no one willing or able to supervise the other boys while they're away. Hence, she decides they can look after themselves. Hal is against it, claiming he'd feel a lot better with someone keeping the boys in line and supervising them. He is forced to agree after Lois reminds him of their failed attempts to leave someone to supervise the boys. It always end with their vacations ruined, the police involved with the fracas and dealing with their neighbors' complaints over the boys' misbehavior. He and Lois remember a time when Ida babysat the older boys while they were in St. Louis with Dewey. She misbehaved herself by having Reese and Malcolm compete in torturous games to win the hand of her nurse from Croatia, Raduca. Hal takes their luggage to the car, and after giving the usual warnings to behave themselves, Lois grabs the old vase which is the last thing of value she has that Malcolm, Reese and Dewey haven't broken, mentioning that she doesn't want to worry in how they'd break, trying to hide the pieces and even coming up with a cover story. Hence to ease her own thoughts, Lois breaks the vase herself before leaving.
At the apartment, Francis and Piama shows them around the single room living area and have prepared them a mattress on the floor to sleep in. This is worrisome to Hal who thinks the place is not ideal for him and Lois to stay in, believing it's too rundown. He tries to suggest that they stay in a hotel room while they're visiting him. Francis isn't having any of it and insists they stay here. Francis and Piama reveal that Francis has a job... only he hasn't actually, as he wants to go into business for himself making crystal ornaments but needs a $20,000 loan to get himself started and wants his parents as guarantor on the loan application. Hal is receptive to the idea, but Lois refuses. At the A.A. meeting, a lot of Francis' friends speak of how much their own suffering and abusive backgrounds paled in comparison to his living hell with 'L'. Lois is horrified to realize Francis blamed her for his alcoholism. When Francis gets up to speak, he offers his sincerest apologes to Piama, Hal and his brothers. When he gets to 'L', he doesn't apologise but instead forgives her.
Meanwhile, Dewey finds the spare key to Hal's car. Reese and Malcolm are excited to use the car and enjoy some wanton destruction and revenge against their enemies. However, Dewey simply wants to go to the arcade, but Reese and Malcolm tell him to get lost and refuses to write that into their plan. Dewey therefore hides the key, Reese and Malcolm try to torture him into telling but are unsuccessful as he grown immune from years of dealing with it. They resort to serving and catering to Dewey's liking for a while, surprising Dewey into how much they healed with each other. Dewey admits he swallowed the key, thus, the two try to make him pass the key through his body in time to have fun with the car with high fiber foods. When he does eventually produce, Malcolm and Reese prepare to sift through his leavings only to hear the car pull away as Dewey hadn't actually swallowed the key.
At the apartment, Lois expresses anger for Francis crucifying her name in a public fashion and blaming her for his alcoholism. Hal tries to calmly diffuse the situation. Lois tries to persuade Hal that Francis is only being nice and celebrating his sobriety with them to get the loan, only to learn that he's already signed the paperwork. After Lois attacks Hal, Francis gives Lois the loan application telling her he doesn't want it if his parents are going to fight about it. Lois then apologizes for her behavior and allows Francis the loan and her blessing to pursue their business. However, it then turns out that Francis was never an alcoholic (and in fact can barely handle a drink) and believes Lois is too, based on the symptoms of rage and fury. Lois disputes it and realizing that Francis is continually finding something to blame, Lois leaves angry and heartbroken. Francis turns to Hal for support, but Hal offers none seeing that deep down Francis hasn't changed. He realises that he only signed the loan to try and buy Francis' love but now knows there's no point, and he rips up the application telling Francis he needs to have a long look in the mirror so he can see who's really to blame for his problems. Hal leaves, and Francis does decide to take a look in the mirror. Francis realizes that he's been focusing his anger on the wrong person, and accepts that the person to blame for all his problems is much closer to home... unfortunately, this results in him blaming Piama for everything instead.
Cast[]
- Jane Kaczmarek as Lois
- Bryan Cranston as Hal
- Christopher Masterson as Francis
- Justin Berfield as Reese
- Erik Per Sullivan as Dewey
- Frankie Muniz as Malcolm
Guest Stars[]
Recurring[]
- Emy Coligado as Piama
Cameos[]
- Stephen Lee as Speaker #1
- James Geralden as Speaker #2
- Matthew Willig as Crash
- George McQuade as George
Trivia[]
- Piama's first appearance in season 7.
- Lois says that she's officially given up on having people babysit the boys while she and Hal are gone. The last time she had someone babysit was in the episode Bride of Ida, where Ida babysat them and tortured them with her sadistic games for a chance of marrying her caretaker, Raduca. Reese runs away from home and get married to a girl he knew little to nothing about. This is very obviously why Lois gave up on that, showing that she cares about Reese.
- Another reason that Lois has given up on having someone babysit the boys while she and Hal go out of town is because she is tired of the constant complaining that they received from previous babysitters in regards to the boys' misbehavior. This is mainly evident with Malcolm and Reese in Water Park as it's a prime example in how badly they misbehaved each time that she and Hal go out of town. Dewey did nothing wrong and got along with his babysitter in Mrs. White. However, while having a good time, Mrs. White was taken away by ambulance, unclear if Lois found out and if Mrs. White actually died before, during, or after the ambulance trip.
- Reese's Party also supports the reason why Lois has given up having someone babysit them at the house. In order to curb the constant complaints from the boys' potential babysitters and avoid having the neighbors calling the cops on them, she and Hal decided to separate the boys from one another. In that episode, Malcolm is to spend the weekend at Stevie's house, Dewey is to stay at Craig's home and Reese has to spend the weekend on the bus.
- Malcolm says he wants to do donuts on the lawn of his old basketball coach. This could be a reference to when he was on the JV basketball team in Malcolm Holds His Tongue.